We spot

Founders and their cooperation

Preferably at least two founders.

If the business idea entails both technical and commercial challenges, there should ideally be at least one founder with each background. Only in cases of considerable network effects can it be an advantage to have a 100% commercially oriented founder team instead.

A least one founder has ideally a ‘star power’, making it easier to attract talent to the company.

Even if the founders have different professional backgrounds, their social and cultural values are compatible.

The founders are likely to hold, in part, these characteristics: enterprising, self-motivating, impatient, fast-working, thriving with speed, chaos and insecurity, resistant to adversity, forward-looking yet able to learn from mistakes, persistently thinking on improvements everywhere in life, professional pride, ability to immerse, curious by nature, cooperative, persistent, good at postponing reward, and joyful and optimistic by nature.

The founders should preferably know each other well beforehand. It is best if they have worked together before, and even better if this was in a young start-up business with considerable growth.

The founders agree on the workload distribution.

The founders agree on how fast and under which circumstances a possible exit should be.

The founders have signed a shareholder’s agreement and have attuned their basic positions with regard to the purpose of the company and their personal efforts and objectives in participating.

The shares of the founders are perhaps distributed partly dynamically, for instance on basis of performance criteria.

The founders reserve potential ’founders titles’ for most of C-suite team, even though these positions are yet to be filled.

The founders are well acquainted with sharing economy, crowdsourcing, productivity-increasing apps and other methods to minimize costs and increase efficiency.

The founders preferably have an experienced ‘mentor’ and they follow leading entrepreneurs on their blogs.

Planning process

In the beginning the management team do not develop an elaborate business plan, but instead a simple business canvas which they adjust frequently during the first many months.

Very likely they make numerous pivots, i.e. quick strategic conversions, in the beginning.

They develop and test a ’minimum viable product’ before proceeding to a finished product.

They outsource activities that are irrelevant to their main qualifications, such as accounting. However,especially in the start-up phase they are 100% personally involved in the product development and marketing, and allocate considerable time to customers in order to learn how the product is received.

The product that the company seeks to develop must, as a key rule, be so remarkable that a significant proportion of its users would be ’very disappointed’, if the product was to be withdrawn from the market.

They develop well thought-through metrics to make it easier for them to continuously follow to which extent they fulfill their strategic goals.

The company do not engage in aggressive scaling until clear documentation show that it has a particularly strong product-market fit.

In case they expect numerous financing rounds they might plan physical presence near a leading venture capital center.

When the company scales, there is considerable focus on lifting all elements simultaneously in order to prevent that an unfinished product is oversold, or that a product is overdeveloped without sufficient attention being devoted to product marketing.

The management team demonstrates extensive attention to potential challenges by transferring from early adopter to mainstream market.

Business Model

The business model contains mostly elements that are original.

It enables a stupendous scaling with decreasing or unchanged marginal costs. Furthermore, it can lead to massive return which clearly make the investment and risk worthwhile.

Their strategy is probably aimed at a niche market, which they can dominate. Not until such domination has been achieved, do they wish to expand further.

If they introduce a new product to an already mature market, their product should be at least 10 times better than its competition regarding at least one major product dimension.

It is always an advantage if their product is relatively simple and easy to market.

The company offers not only features but a complete product.

It is not a question of a product or technology in search of a need, but instead a clearly defined need being fulfilled by the company’s product.

The business model contains elements that clearly counteract competition such as network effects, patents or exclusive agreements.

The company operates possibly within an area dominated by key technologies that evolve hyper-exponentially and therefore provides opportunities for start-up companies.

We add

Between us, we have founded or
co-founded well over 20 startups and have invested in and advised many more.

After we invest, we really get to work. This is partly to get to know our portfolio companies well, but mainly to add value.

And because we can, of course. Between us, we have founded or co-founded well over 20 startups and have invested in and advised many more. Our joint upstart experience cover digital media and entertainment, TV and data broadcasting, mobile, interactive, SaaS, big data, IT consulting, metadata, digital data, property, finance and more.

And one more thing: We have great networks in international IT, lifestyle businesses and corporate finance.

We exit

Our preferred point of entry as an investor is when the company has proven its product/market fit – barely.

And our preferred point of exit is when it has proven it – really.

The difference is implementation of go-to-market strategies, which is our home ground. We have done full or partial exits many times before: mergers, acquisitions, asset sales, strategic company sales, joint ventures, management buy-outs, IPO, earn-outs, reverse takeovers, etc. We are therefore familiar with the terms and the processes, and we know the partners who can help.

Through our presence in California, we can help Nordic startups enter a market where valuations are greater and growth potential is exceptional.

Nordic Eye connects the Nordics and California. We help portfolio companies to accelerate growth and increase valuations prior to raising capital or exit in California as valuations are higher in the US.